Formal education in science and engineering centers on teaching facts and problem-solving skills in a series of narrow topics.
It is true that a few topics, although narrow in content, have such broad application that they are themselves integrative: These include (at a bare minimum) substantial chunks of mathematics and the basics of classical mechanics and electromagnetism, with the basics of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics close behind.
By knowing the outlines of a field, I mean knowing the answers, to some reasonable approximation, to questions like these:
What are the physical phenomena?
What are their magnitudes?
What are their preconditions?
How well are they understood?
How well can they be modeled?
What do they make possible?
What do they forbid?
And even more fundamental than these are questions of knowledge about knowledge:
What is known today?
What are the gaps in what I know?
When would I need to know more to solve a problem?
How could I find it?
It takes far less knowledge to recognize a problem than to solve it, yet in key respects, that bit of knowledge is more important: With recognition, a problem may be avoided, or solved, or an idea abandoned.
This sort of knowledge is a kind of specialty, really — a limited slice of learning, but oriented crosswise. Because of this orientation, though, it provides leverage in integrating knowledge from diverse sources.
основателю Media Lab Николасу Негропонте. В 1995 г. в своем бестселлере Being Digital он изложил концепцию обучения с помощью компьютеров как предтечу скорого будущего человечества, целиком и полностью цифрового и интерактивного.
Думаю, эт оочень интересный человек, у него просто гениальный проект. Вот только нюанс. За 5 лет (срок жизни ) ноутбука 2B1 (предположим, они, действительно, столько проживут) дети привыкнут к компьютерам и интернету, у них появится новый стиль мышления - алгоритмический. жажда знаний. И ноутбцки сжохнут. А ведь вряд ли за это вермя страны так сильно разовбются, что еще партию закупят... Хотя, наверное. толчок будет сильнейший. Ведь и взрослые этим пользоваться будут не меньше детей...
The distinction I have in mind is between knowing the inside of a topic in deep detail — many facts and problem-solving skills — and knowing the structure and context of a topic: essential facts, what problems can be solved by the skilled, and how the topic fits with others.
Studying to learn about everything
I recommend that intellectually ambitious students invest considerable time in a mode of study may set off subconscious alarm signals that conflicts with almost instinctive impulses imparted by classroom experience: